Linguine Aglio e Basilico – green pasta with garlic

Linguine Aglio e Basilico by Pasta Morelli, green linguine with garlic and basil from Tuscany

Long, flat durum wheat linguine from the Antico Pastificio Morelli, flavored with natural garlic and basil concentrate and colored with dehydrated spinach. Bronze-drawn, slowly dried at 50 °C, and made with fresh wheat germ in the dough. 250 g in a transparent bag, cooking time 8 to 9 minutes. Not an egg pasta, but a pure durum wheat pasta with a green note.

The Linguine Aglio e Basilico by Pasta Morelli are long, flat noodles made from Italian durum wheat semolina, refined with natural garlic and basil concentrates. Their characteristic green hue comes from finely dehydrated spinach in the dough, not from basil or eggs – the pasta is a pure durum wheat variety, also suitable for those who avoid eggs. Additionally, it contains fresh wheat germ, which Morelli has been reincorporating into every dough since 1860, giving the pasta a bready, cereal aroma when cooked.

Green noodles with a herb-garlic scent

Upon opening the box, an intense aroma hits you immediately: warm garlic with a fresh, herbaceous basil note in the background. The linguine shows a restrained, olive-green tone – not spinach green, but a subtle tint from 0.28 percent dehydrated spinach in the dough. The color varies slightly from strand to strand because the dough is laid out by hand. The surface remains rough and matte, like all bronze-drawn linguine from Morelli.

When cooking, the small sensation for which Morelli is famous occurs: the pasta water turns slightly greenish, and a multi-layered scent rises: first the garlic, then the basil, with the grainy wheat germ note underneath. On the palate, the garlic dominates initially with a pleasantly round, non-sharp character. Then the basil opens up, and finally, the wheat germ adds its dark, bready depth. Three layers that cleanly detach from one another.

What pairs well with linguine with garlic and basil?

The short answer: The pasta already carries so much flavor that it barely needs a sauce. The simplest version goes like this: toss the cooked linguine in a pan with a spoonful of cooking water, a drizzle of cold-pressed olive oil, and shaved Pecorino. Nothing more is needed, and many wouldn't want it any other way afterward.

Classic accompaniments that suit the three basic aromas: a red tomato sugo with onions and thyme, a pesto alla Genovese (yes, that doubles the basil note, but it works surprisingly well), a lemon-cream sauce for white fish, shrimp in olive oil with chili, or a grilled vegetable mix with zucchini, bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes. Especially nice with Mediterranean grilled meats like lamb skewers or grilled Mediterranean fish.

For the cooking time, bring 2.5 liters of water per 250 g of pasta to a boil, add a tablespoon of sea salt, and put the linguine in. Let cook for 8 to 9 minutes, stirring once. Save half a glass of the cooking water before you drain it – this will help the sauce bind perfectly later.

Morelli's wheat germ secret from Tuscany

The wheat germ is the heart of the grain, the part from which the new plant grows. It contains fat, which turns rancid quickly – flour without the germ stays on the shelf longer. Morelli takes the opposite approach and reincorporates the freshly sifted germ into the dough immediately after milling. The family motto is "Siamo fatti di un’altra pasta," loosely translated as "We are cut from a different cloth."

The Antico Pastificio Morelli was founded in 1860 in Lastra a Signa near Florence. In 1924, Teresa Giomi Morelli, the grandmother of the current owners, brought a branch of the business to San Romano in the province of Pisa, right at the train station. The pasta factory still operates there today, led by Dino Morelli and his three children Lucia, Antonio, and Marco in the fifth generation.

Three steps define the process: the dough is bronze-drawn, laid out by hand on traditional racks, and dried for 36 hours at a maximum of 50 °C. The rough bronze surface binds every sauce better later on, while slow drying preserves the aromas of the wheat and the germ in the dough.

The other flavored linguine from our Pasta Morelli collection also share the same durum wheat semolina base and the same wheat germ content: the Linguine al Limone with lemon and black pepper and the Linguine Peperoncino with red chili. In addition to the Linguine Aglio e Basilico, these offer three varieties for three moods: herbal-warm, lemon-fresh, and spicy-hot.